Phillip Olivares

Name: Phillip Olivares

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: Senior

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Christianity, Magic Tricks and Clown Culture, Literary Analysis, Insane Clown Posse/Juggalo Culture

Appearance: Phillip Olivares is a thin boy of average height, coming in at 5'7" and 135 lbs. His build is slender, with thin limbs and long fingers, to the point that he appears mildly gangly. Contrasting this, however, is his movement; Phillip has very good hand-eye coordination and when he puts his mind to it is quite capable of intricate gestures and feats of sleight of hand.

Phillip's face is somewhat mismatched to his narrow body; it's quite round, with full cheeks and a wide jaw. His nose is of average size, though looks small on his face, and his lips are full; his teeth are slightly crooked, with a minor overbite that he hopes to someday correct with braces. Phillip is of mixed Chilean/Spanish/Caucasian descent, with his mestizo Chilean heritage most clearly visible in his skin tone, which is slightly too dark to pass for white. He has dark brown eyes that he often opens very wide in expressions of mock surprise, and brown hair so dark as to be nearly black, which he wears cut to about an inch in length. Phillip tends to stay clean-shaven with the exception of a thin pencil mustache.

In everyday life, Phillip dresses in a loud but casual fashion, favoring Hawaiian shirts, khaki pants, and tennis shoes. When performing magic tricks, however, he adopts a clown persona named "Professor Pedantik" and wears baggy pants with one white leg and one red leg, a blue and green plaid shirt, red tennis shoes, and a collapsible top hat he modified himself to feature all the colors of the rainbow in horizontal stripes but in incorrect order, going red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, violet, then green. In-character, he also paints his face white and dons bright red lipstick, accenting his outfit with accessories as appropriate to his act.

On the day of the abduction, Phillip was wearing khaki pants, blue tennis shoes, and a black Hawaiian shirt adorned with bright orange and red flames and a design of a laughing skull in a top hat behind an array of cards and dice. Phillip did not bring most of his clowning gear with him on the trip, but did have his collapsible hat among his belongings.

Biography: Born on December 11, 1999, to parents Edward and Alma Olivares, Phillip is the youngest of three children, behind brother Stanley and sister Michele, respectively two and five years his elders. His upbringing was lower middle class, with much of the benefit conveyed by his father's lengthy experience as a plumber neutralized by old debts and his mother's inconsistent employment, coupled with lacking budgeting skills. Still, Phillip never wanted for basic necessities, and his medical needs were always taken care of.

This was particularly important for him due to an early diagnosis of asthma, which kept him from the same highly active lifestyle as Stanley. This disparity was often troubling to Phillip while he was growing up; he at first idolized his brother. At the same time, due to his health, younger age, and smaller stature, he tended to be left in the dust by his elder sibling.

Phillip found more connection where he sought it less: with Michele. Her greater age gave her a somewhat broader perspective, and she was enthralled by the family's youngest. She wanted to hold and take care of Phillip whenever the opportunity arose, and would often entertain him by reading to him. Phillip loved these stories, and would tolerate Michele's attentions in order to be entertained by them.

His parents were a constant force in his life, though Alma more than Edward. Alma was the primary caretaker, spending most of the day with the kids, while Edward tended to be focused mostly on work. Church was one of the few times the whole family reliably came together for an extended time, and Phillip grew to love it for this, though he struggled somewhat with the actual concepts of Christianity, often questioning or finding frustration in seemingly-outdated ideas. Still, the customary after-church lunch ensured Phillip's semi-enthusiastic participation.

Phillip struggled with school from the start. While he was well ahead of the average when it came to reading, thanks mostly to the interest he took in story time with Michele, and showed great enthusiasm for describing and exploring stories, he had no corresponding head start in other subjects and found it difficult to keep up. He also had a somewhat troubled social life, as he did not easily connect with his classmates or make friends. A major reason for this was that Phillip couldn't participate in more rambunctious activities reliably due to his asthma, but was too wild and active for his more reserved classmates.

This led to Phillip becoming known as somewhat weird and annoying, and he faced further social and academic difficulties due to this reputation. He disliked school and performed poorly on tests and homework as a result. While this was concerning to his parents, they lacked the personal experience to help Phillip overcome his issues, and indeed as he grew older discussions about school often turned into arguments. He was the most difficult sibling; his sister was a natural at academic pursuits and his brother was a successful athlete and a social butterfly.

It was only in late seventh grade that things started to turn around for Phillip, due to a chance encounter. He happened to overhear some of the other unpopular students at his school discussing a clown-themed rap group known as Insane Clown Posse. Confused and intrigued, he queried them and was given a brief description of the music. Phillip found the concept immediately appealing; it spoke to his own feelings of misfit alienation and offered a crude, over the top outlet for his frustrations and fears, one that came with a ready-made community of equally outsider members. Phillip sought out ICP's music online, learned to draw their distinctive hatchetman logo, and quickly embraced an identity as a juggalo, the name fans of ICP use to refer to members of their subculture.

This was not initially met with support from Phillip's parents, who thought the subculture absurd at best and dangerous at worst. They initially forbid Phillip from having any association with the band or its fans, calling the whole affair unchristian. While Phillip at first reacted to this with anger, he soon realized that the root of the problem was miscommunication. The things his parents feared about juggalo culture had nothing to do with what he saw in it. They were taking his newfound hobby at face value, and couldn't understand what it provided to him.

Over summer vacation, Phillip sought to explain his passion, discussing ICP's Christian ethos and exploring their themes of community and acceptance. He emphasized the distinction between fantasy and reality, clarifying that he had no interest in actual violence, and slowly he brought his parents around to the harmlessness of his fascination. He was aided in this pursuit by the marked improvement in other parts of his life that came with the new school year and the loosening of his parents restrictions on his hobby. His social situation clarified—he was still seen as weird, but now he had a number of equally-weird friends. He performed better academically, and took a much greater interest in church, finding it something he could now better connect with and contextualize.

Phillip also extended his clown interest outside the realm of ICP. The aesthetic appealed to him in its own right, and he soon found an appreciation for more traditional magic tricks and clown performance. He read widely on the subject, mastering a number of fairly simple magic tricks (many based around a deck of cards) and becoming a proficient juggler. As he moved into high school, he created and refined a clown persona and costume of his own, performing for younger friends and relatives as "Professor Pedantik," a stage persona in which he adopts an air of humorous and exaggerated pretension.

Even when not in character, Phillip is a great fan of comedy, though his tastes run more to the unusual; he loves long, somewhat meta jokes, and takes equal or even greater delight upon eliciting groans or confusion as upon earning laughs. Phillip's favorite joke is The Aristocrats, and he has an ever-evolving rendition of it he shares when the opportunity presents itself, as well as a number of jokes of similar nature.

In high school, Phillip is largely known for his vocal and persistent love of ICP and clown-related media. He's not popular, and is fairly often the butt of jokes, but more or less on his own terms; if students make fun of his garish fashion, for instance, that's because he chooses to dress funny. He's friendly and capable of having conversations unrelated to his favorite topic, though will go on and on about it given half a chance. Phillip can be quite biting on those rare occasions he actually feels slighted, and will grind an axe for a long time, though is very amenable to attempts at reconciliation. Phillip's friend group includes those rare other ICP fans at George Hunter High School, plus an assortment of outsiders, particularly tolerant ones, and members of the book club.

Phillip considers himself heterosexual, but more as a default than anything else. The truth is, while he finds girls attractive, he's very lacking in confidence and doesn't find the prospect of romance or relationships overly appealing, in large part due to a certain discomfort with emotional intimacy. He'll crack innuendos all day long, but has no sexual experience himself and isn't overly interested in getting any, having difficulty reconciling the idea with his morality and concepts of faith. At the same time, he doesn't judge others for their actions.

Phillip is a generally average student—he skews towards the upper end of average now that he reliably completes his homework and puts forth more than token effort. He shines when it comes to English class and literary analysis, displaying a real knack for uncovering hidden meaning, an attitude he also brings to the school book club. He struggles with more concrete subjects, especially math, which he's often on the verge of failing; Phillip can grasp the theory of a concept fairly well but tends to struggle with execution. He has managed to avoid any notably strenuous gym classes due to his asthma, but does not enjoy even the more remedial classes he does take. He's usually an active participant in class discussions, but can be disruptive about this, cracking jokes or engaging in meandering tangents.

Phillip's relationship with his parents is good; they're proud of the way he's pulled himself together and if they don't exactly share his clown passion they tolerate it willingly due to its marked positive effects on Phillip. Stanley gives Phillip a hard time about his interests but also sticks up for him and encourages him to be true to himself. Michele, on the other had, finds he whole juggalo scene absolutely juvenile, and often actively offensive. She misses Phillip's younger days, and isn't shy about voicing this opinion to him. This has driven a wedge between the two formerly-close siblings, something particularly unpleasant to Phillip due to his sister's status as the family member closest in manner to himself. He mostly leaves her alone, but sometimes will poke at her, antagonizing her in turn or making her the butt of jokes.

Phillip hopes to pursue clowning professionally in the long term, and has explored opportunities at clown school in Nashville and Knoxville, though in the short term he will be taking classes at Chattanooga State Community College. He is also searching for part-time employment.

Advantages: Phillip is able to dig into the nuances and subtleties of a situation, examining odd perspectives in search of a new joke or literary insight. He also has good hand-eye coordination and is familiar with the principles of misdirection thanks to his status as an amateur magician, leaving him with potential to turn difficult situations in his favor.

Disadvantages: Phillip suffers from moderate asthma, which poses a notable risk to him should he engage in major physical exertion—something he's much less adept at than average anyways due to his condition. His reputation around the school is not the sort that would suggest reliability to potential allies even among his social group, which is limited; he can be off-putting and struggles to take anything seriously.

Designated Number: Male student No. 047

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Designated Weapon: Macuahuitl

Conclusion: I love it. The weapon that is, not B047, I hate everything about that. - Josie Knight

'The above biography is as written by MurderWeasel. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: MurderWeasel

Kills: None

Killed By: Mikki Swift

Collected Weapons: Macuahuitl (assigned weapon, to Zachary Beck)

Allies: Mikki Swift, Bree Jones, Zachary Beck, Terra Johnson

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: Phillip, after some dour self-reflection, elected to address the cameras and speak out to the rappers of Insane Clown Posse, letting them know how they'd inspired him in life, though after he couldn't help but feel the gesture had been empty.

He moved on, finding the Menagerie in a failed attempt to reach the village. His poor navigation happened him into Shauna Cooke, who was perilously suspended from the menagerie's rigging. His initial offers to help that didn't put the responsibility squarely onto his own shoulders all fell to the immediacy of the rigging beginning to come undone. He realized, reluctantly, that it was on him to climb and get her a rope with which to more safely lower herself- no other option was feasible. Danny Chamnanma and Nikki Nelson-Kelly while Phillip was trying to ascend- together they could sort of piece together a plan with enough contingencies to try and prevent Shauna's untimely death. While they shouted encouragement from below Phillip was able to secure Nikki's rope to a stable point and then work his way to Shauna. He had her secured, but she was still having difficulty navigating to a safe place. Phillip's chaotic mind noted that he was about ready to give up, having done all he felt he could do, even while Nikki and Danny remained positive. When things went wrong- Shauna falling, hitting Danny on the way down, Phillip scrabbled the rest of the way down and fled with a flimsy excuse, unable to hold his composure further and assuming Nikki would handle the rest.

His self-esteem was shot, and he didn't want to be found by the others and forgiven for bailing because he felt he didn't deserve it, so he continued until he found the lighthouse, where Zachary Beck and Terra Johnson waited. The arrival of Mikki Swift and Bree Jones turned the gathering into a free-for-all of slightly hysteric news- at least one person was already dead. Phillip pointedly avoided mentioning who he'd already seen. Mikki, meanwhile, played at leadership by promising to hold them together so they could search for more allies. Phillip agreed, much as he was also sure that he didn't belong there.

The night was spent in one of the lighthouse's few sort of structurally sound rooms, Phillip haunted by the certainty that Shauna would be dead in the morning. Bree and Mikki were missing, leaving him intimately close with Terra, enough to have a whispered conversation with her. They'd shared a history, one that colored their attempts at reassuring one another, and as Phillip began to realize that Terra was perhaps still not over their shared moments in history his anxiety began to take on a new dimension. Terra's words however, comforted him, and as she essentially prepared to confess to him he gently encouraged her, for a moment emboldened by her own energy and vitality. Their tender moment however, was interrupted. Outside Mikki had shot Bree, and Terra rushed out. Phillip decided he'd had enough of his own cowardice and rushed into the fray- he woke Zach. Phillip rushed up, where he saw that Bree was already on the ground and Terra and Mikki were engaged in a brutal melee. Gunshots from Mikki's gun went every which way, and before Phillip could react Zach yanked him into the path of a stray shot to save himself. Phillip took the hit, and only stayed alive long enough to die while Terra watched.

Post-Game Evaluation: The real tragedy? He'll never get to learn how fucking magnets work. - Dennis Lourvey

Memorable Quotes: "Or like if I fall and die, then someone else can learn from my mistakes before they try." - To the others on the ground, while he's still climbing to try and save Shauna.

"I don't think anything you say can be too scary anymore. It's... I mean, it is, but also... it's not, you know? I don't think you'd hurt anyone, or me, so, so it can't be that scary." - Be it dying on an island or admitting ones long quiet love, a boy and a girl find a way to reassure one another up until they get shot and die.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Phillip, in chronological order.

The Past: V7 Pregame: Prom: The Trip: V7:
 * All In The Telling
 * I Voted!
 * Random Reality
 * Getting Down With The Clown
 * Room 714: Den of the Nerds
 * "Shitshow" sounds so crass. I prefer "fecal fiesta."
 * Welcome To The Fucking Monkey House
 * Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
 * Children of Cain

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Phillip Olivares. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''